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Elderberry - application, effects and recipes
- Elderberry contains vitamins, minerals, tannins and mucilages, essential oil and caffeic acid derivatives.
- It prevents colds, inhibits inflammation, helps against iron deficiency and vitamin deficiency, stimulates the kidneys and reduces stress.
- Applied externally, it relieves skin infections, ulcers and insect bites.
- Raw berries release hydrocyanic acid, which is why we only take elderberry to us heated.
- Especially flowers and berries are used, but also leaves and bark are used in envelopes and teas.
contents
- ingredients
- effect
- ingredients
- Elderberry - Biology
- Myth and history
- Elderberry - healing power in the kitchen
- Elderberry fall Drink
- elderberry soup
ingredients
His healing power lies in the flowers and berries. The flowers contain essential oil and flavonoids, rutin and organic acids. Meanwhile, the biochemical spectrum of the plant also includes hydrocyanic acid. Therefore, we should never enjoy the berries raw, because that leads at least to problems of digestion. Only when elderberry is heated above 80 degrees Celsius, the poison can be neutralized.
Elderberry contains proteins that work against inflammation. That's what the University of Jerusalem found out. Kzudem alzium, potassium, magnesium, zinc and iron are present in the berries. Elderberry juice therefore works reliably against muscle pain and discomfort of the bones, for example against calf cramps. For children, it has the advantage that it does not taste like medicine, but like a sweet juice.
Elderberry juice also helps people with anemia and consequent iron deficiency. Among other things, the contained zinc promotes male potency and in the berries are also vitamin C, E, K, provitamin A and the B vitamins.
Elderberry contains many vitamins and minerals and can, for. B. prevent colds. (Image: romankrykh / fotolia.com) effect
Elderflower and berries are used by folk medicine for fever and cold. Elderberry dissolves mucus found in the nose and bronchi, so the assumption. That's not proven scientifically. It could also be an effect of hot water.
To prevent colds with Vitamin C, you should heat the elderberry juice to over 80 degrees Celsius, but not longer over 100 degrees Celsius. Then you destroy the hydrocyanic acid, but do not boil the vitamins. Elderberries cause the kidneys to excrete more water. This helps against urinary tract discomfort as the fluid flushes out pathogens. Elderberry also has an antioxidant effect through the flavonoids and phenols. These substances are especially in the berries.
Furthermore, elderberry is considered in many distribution areas as a remedy for insect bites, swelling and acute inflammation. The anti-inflammatory effect is scientifically confirmed, but it is unclear so far, which active ingredients act together and how.
ingredients
Folk medicine uses leaves, flowers, bark and berries of the elderberry: elderflower syrup and tea as well as elderberry juice, teas from the bark, envelopes and baths from the roots. The flowers should promote the flow of sweat, the berries stimulate the kidneys, the roots and bark have a laxative effect.
The flowers of the elderberry should promote the sweat flow. (Image: matka_Wariatka / fotolia.com) Elderberry - Biology
Elderberries are a genus of the family of musk herbs. This genus contains nearly a dozen species, three of which grow wild in Central Europe. The "elderberry" or "lilac bush" usually means the black elder, an all-rounder that spreads almost everywhere in this country. Then there are the little dwarf elder and the red elder. The latter differs from the black elderberry mainly by the red, not black color of the berries. The three elderberries grow from temperate latitudes to the subtropics.
Elderberries are shrubs that reach a height of 1 to 15 m, depending on the species. They are green in summer and lose their leaves in winter. The drupes look like berries, are black, blue or red and contain up to 5 seeds. Branches and branches contain marrow containing calcium oxalate crystals. Black elderberry likes nutrient-rich soil and is found in central Europe at the edges of the forest, in gardens and in fields.
Myth and history
The black elder plays an important role in myths and fairy tales. The Teutons considered him the seat of the good goddess Holda. This held off evil spirits as well as lightning and fire. Elderberry bushes in front of the house offered a magical protection. A faint reflection of this goddess can be found in the fairy tale of Frau Holle of the Brothers Grimm. Holda or Holla was the goddess of springs and wells, and the Teutons prayed to her for the fertility of the fields. If the elder bloomed luxuriantly, then the harvest became good, so the faith of the old ones.
Presumably, faith helped Elderly spread. Anyone who drops an elder must therefore expect Holda to punish him with an illness, and even in the eighteenth century, people in the countryside asked forgiveness for sown an elder.
The power attributed to the elderberry should also have negative consequences. So was a withered elder in the garden as a sign that a member of the family was about to die. Witches should turn into an elderberry branch and therefore elderberry wood should not be processed in furniture.
Even Greeks and Romans saw in the Elder the seat of good spirits. Antiquity already knew elderberry as a medicinal plant. Hippocrates rightly recommended elder as a water-driving agent. Dioscorides (1st century AD) used elderberry roots for dropsy and put the fresh leaves on ulcers.
Adamus Lonicerus (1528-1586) also emphasized its draining effect, also used it to purify the blood and saw in him a remedy for eye diseases and shaky hands. Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762-1836) gave his patients steam baths and gargle water with elderberry for respiratory diseases.
Besides such early applications, which were based on real healing powers of the plant, our ancestors also attributed to the elderberry numerous effects that arose from superstition. For example, people hung pussions, nails and teeth on elderberry bushes because the unrestrained growth of the plant was supposed to "absorb the bad". Childless women embraced elderberry bushes to receive bitten toothache on an elderberry branch and believed to transfer the pain to them. Elder tea should only work if you picked the flowers before sunrise.
Arrogance from today's perspective is out of place. Elderberry was essential in the "pharmacy of the Einödbauern" and an effective cure for people for whom a trained doctor was beyond the horizon.
Elderberry - healing power in the kitchen
Pick ripe elderberries in the fall and prepare in a juicer. To do this, cook the berries in a little water for two minutes until they are soft. Then pour the liquid into a sieve and squeeze out the berries. Put the juice in dark bottles and put it in the fridge. Consume it within three days. If you freeze the juice and defrost as needed, it will last up to six months. To prevent a cold, warm up the juice a little.
Elderberry juice can also be frozen and then lasts up to six months. (Photo: elfgradost / fotolia.com) Elderflower tea you win from the flowers of the black elder. You can also boil these flowers with sugar to a syrup and dilute it with water if necessary. The syrup lasts up to several months in an airtight container. Elderflower tea dries sweat and lowers the fever, dissolves the mucus for cough and runny nose. Prepare it fresh, because the active ingredients evaporate. He is also suitable for pregnant women without problems.
For an elderflower tea, douse two teaspoons of dried flowers with hot water, allow to simmer for ten minutes and then strain. In order to prevent colds, one to two cups per day are recommended in the critical time. To relieve acute colds, drink four cups a day.
Elderberry fall Drink
This drink is the healthy alternative to mulled wine if you've gotten a cold downpour.
To do this, warm up a quarter liter of elderberry juice with a quarter of a liter of water, add cinnamon, cardamom and two cloves, let it boast for three minutes, sweeten with honey and then drink a vitamin bomb to protect it from the common cold.
elderberry soup
For an elderberry soup, puree 300 g of elderberries and add half a liter of water, 50 g of honey and the juice of one lemon. Boil the mixture, spread it through a sieve, add stiff whipped cream and warm it. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)